BOULDER, Colo. – A brutal two-game Rocky Mountain road trip was supposed to be kryptonite to a young, inexperienced Bruins roster still getting a grip on the landscape of its own conference.

Three of UCLA's starters had never even played a true road game before. And with matchups in two especially hostile environments, few expected the Bruins to return home unscathed.

But as Colorado continued to push and push on its home court Saturday, cutting into UCLA's one-time double-digit lead, it was UCLA's freshmen trio that stood firm in the game's final moments. The Bruins held on by a thread for the second time in three days for a 78-75 victory – their ninth in a row.

With UCLA up by four with just under a minute remaining, freshman Kyle Anderson delivered the first blow in front of the Buffaloes' raucous crowd, knocking down two free throws to extend the lead to six. Then it was Jordan Adams' turn, as he hit 1 of 2 from the stripe to keep Colorado at arm's length. And after Shabazz Muhammad made one of his two free throws on the next trip down, Adams redeemed himself for the miss on the following possession, hitting the game's final, clinching free throws with just eight ticks left on the clock.

With the game on the line, it was the Bruins' young core that would carry the burden of a taxing mental challenge. And with a final missed 3-pointer from Colorado's Askia Booker – a play that almost mirrored Utah's final missed shot Thursday night – it was UCLA's freshmen that boldly dismissed the notion that their inexperience would hamper them on the road, beating a team that had yet to lose on its home court all season.

"Hitting big free throws down the stretch is huge," said Anderson, who finished with his second double-double in four games. "I think it's a big step in our career. We're shooting toward the crowd. Mentally, you've got to be tough to do it."

"It just proves that we're a tough team down the stretch," Adams added. "We don't lay down. We're going to fight through it."

And fight they did, as the Bruins put together another in a string of improved defensive performances – a night-and-day difference from UCLA's defensive efforts to start the season. Visibly tired playing at a much higher altitude than they're used to, it was pure adrenaline, forward Travis Wear said, that saw the Bruins return every punch Colorado tried to deliver late.

Wear, more than anyone on UCLA's roster, can attest to playing at a high level through that fatigue, as the junior forward collected a career-high 23 points on 11-of-17 shooting, despite being gassed for much of the game.

With each Colorado answer in the game's final five minutes – a span that nearly doomed UCLA against Utah on Thursday – Wear would answer back, as UCLA coach Ben Howland continued to urge his players to feed the junior big man on every possession. That strategy worked wonders for the Bruins, as Wear collected nine consecutive points in the game's final five minutes, outscoring Colorado on his own, 9-8, during that stretch.

"Travis Wear was great," Howland said. "I can't say enough about how good Travis was today. He was really, really good and hard to match up with."

And with Wear excelling, the number of offensive options on the floor for UCLA at any given time was and should continue to be a serious advantage.

"When you've got a lot of weapons and someone has a hot hand, that's what makes this team so good," Wear said. "We've got a lot of guys that can get hot and we have so many options. We're dangerous."

UCLA certainly proved how dangerous it can be in the past three days, winning games in two of the conference's toughest environments. And with an arguably more taxing trip looming two weeks from now against Arizona and Arizona State – two of the conference's best teams – a pair of wins in the mountains showed a resolve that no one expected from the Bruins a month ago.

"We're where we want to be in the new season," Howland said. "We just want to keep building. ... This team has a lot of room to continue to grow."

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